I’ve never met anyone who completed their taxes and then said “I hope I get audited.” We all know audits are bad things, someone checking up on us or worse, trying to catch us cheating. Even if you did everything by the rules audits are still a royal pain. But audits do indeed serve a purpose – they let us know how we did or maybe how we are doing right now.

My grandfather always used to tell me that an honest person doesn’t mind being checked. I would add to that bit of wisdom that the most successful people check themselves.

Here is a short audit for sales professionals. The results (if answered honestly) will help you understand the areas you may want to work on to ensure your continued success. Keep in mind there are no right or wrong answers. Just score yourself 1 to 10 in each of the areas and then develop a plan to increase your score before you conduct the next audit. Here we go:

• Your goals are clear, written down and you review them daily.
• You have a reasonable product or service. You can understand why your target market would buy it.
• You have a repeatable sales process proven to work in your industry.
• You know how many people in your specific target market you need to speak with to get a sale. (You know your batting average)
• You have a sufficient amount of people who look like your “ideal customer” in a target list that makes you reasonably sure you can make your number, month after month.
• You know the specific task motives, maybe even a few personal motives of your target customers, and you know that your product or service can match them.
• You have a general interest statement that works, reliably, to get people to say, “Tell me more.”
• You have a set of information gathering questions that you ask to find out if someone needs, wants and can afford what you sell.
• You spend most of your day (four to six hours) in selling and marketing activities.
• You work from a daily, weekly and monthly plan and are reasonably organized and efficient.
• You don’t work more than 50 – 55 hours a week.
• You do what you say you will do for prospects, customers and your employer. (You MUST be honest here cause if you’re lying to yourself you’ll never reach your potential.)

So how did you do? If you answered honestly you now have some areas to work on as you continue to grow yourself and your business. 

If you didn’t answer honestly then no amount of effort will lead to success…. but at least you learned why your struggling